1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to remotely operating SPDT AC power semiconductor switches or relays used in home automation operated via wireless remote control or plastic optical fiber and lightguide cables in combination with mechanical SPDT power switches, including current sensors and power outlets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Remotely operating AC power relays switch on and off electrical appliances such as home heaters, air conditioners, motorized curtains, lighting and other electrical appliances in homes, apartments, offices and buildings. Verifying the operation status of a remotely operated appliance however is complex. Almost all of the appliances do not report their status and the person operating the remote control device has to verify the on or off status of the operated device by being at the site of the operated appliance and see for himself if the lights are on or off, or the aircondition unit is activated or not.
Most of the remote control devices including IR or RF wireless remote control units use the same power key (and code) to switch the appliance on and off, therefore without the operating person's self verification on site, with most of currently available remotely controlled systems it is impossible to positively verify the on-off power status from a remote site.
On the other hand home automation relay devices, operated via two way communication signals, can update the system controller by the relay's status or the command sent to the relay. The problems such system represents are a. the need to re-design the whole electrical wiring system requiring the customizing of the AC electrical wiring structure and expertise to configure, install and maintain, all of which are expensive and b. the current drain reporting on the basis of the relay status does not reliably provide real time statuses, for example, a boiler's relay status will remain on even though no current is drained when the boiler's power is cut by the boiler thermostat.
The commonly standard wired electrical systems provide only two wires, the AC live or hot wire and the load wire connecting the switches to light fixture or other appliances. Similar two only traveler wires are used for connecting cascading switches that independently switch on-off the same light or appliance.
Further, almost all of the known AC wiring regulations and building codes forbid the connections, mixing and mingling of AC power wires with low voltage signal wires inside the same electrical box and/or the connecting, the mixing or the mingling of AC power wires with low voltage control wires within the same conduit and/or the same relay in the same wall box and/or with other electrical power devices inside a wall box. For this reason a power supply for the remote control circuits of such remotely operated power switching devices must be structured inside within the AC switch and powered by the AC power. Such strict electrical and building codes narrowed the controls of home automation devices to basic three communication signals including wireless (IR and RF) and modulated RF via the AC power lines.
The significance with remote controlling of home automation systems of current days is the ability to switch electrical appliances on and off remotely via PCs through the Internet, via mobile telephones, iPad and/or via other PDA devices. The problem however for such remote controlling is the need for a verified on-off status of the appliances being operated and/or the availability of a status report covering all the remotely controlled appliances of a given house, office, apartment or a building. The power consumption reporting including specific itemized consumption of each individual house, apartment, office and businesses is a major objective and the center focus of power station management, municipalities and governments throughout the world.
Devices for detecting the on-off status or a standby status and current drain is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,649,727 and 7,864,500, IR devices for communicating such on-off or standby statuses via two way RF or IR remote control system along with IR remote control devices for operating AC power switches and AC operated appliances are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,639,907 and such devices operated through lightguide or fiber optic cable are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/236,656, 12/725,808, 12/761,484 and 12/963,876 with the content of the three referenced US patents and the four applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Similarly, such method and apparatuses for integrating remote control devices with video interphone systems and shopping terminals are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,290,702 and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/509,315 dated Aug. 24, 2006.
For all the disclosed and known power switching and control devices, there is a need to access the devices i.e., establishing the connectivity for feeding control signals and retrieving a switch status and/or the current consumption via the switch or via power outlets. But the electrical safety codes and regulations that forbid connections of a low voltage communication line to an AC power switch and AC power outlets held back the needed power consumption reporting until now. To provide reliable on-off and other operating command propagation and receive in return a status report and to enable a non restricted connectivity between a low voltage control devices and an AC power switches and outlets, the use of the optical fiber and lightguide was introduced in the above referenced US patents applications.
Further, the remotely controlled SPDT relay disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,649,727 and 7,864,500 provide for combining automation relays and current sensors in electrical box adjacent to the mechanical SPDT switch, or adjacent to the SPDT switch itself within the same electrical box. However, the users do not prefer to have two adjacent devices for operating for example, the same light, and moreover it is not architecturally pleasing to expand the number of electrical boxes, switching devices and/or lineup decorative covers on the walls, and a need for a less visible or non-noticeable integration of the remotely operated SPDT relays with the standard manually actuated SPDT switches is needed.